6 Times Hollywood Alluded To Harvey Weinstein's Alleged Behaviour

An explosive exposé published by The New York Times reported that Weinstein, a film producer and co-founder of The Weinstein Company, had allegedly sexually harassed and sexually assaulted multiple actresses and women who have worked with him.

Since The Times’ damning report came out, Hollywood’s biggest players have publicly condemned his actions, and shown their support for the women who were brave enough to speak up about their experiences. We’re talking about major actors, some of whom have won Oscars for roles in Weinstein’s films, including Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lawrence.

In the wake of another major story on the same topic by The New Yorker, written by Ronan Farrow, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie have come forward to reveal that they, too, have had similar experiences with the film executive.

Other key things that have happened include: Weinstein’s firing from his own company; his admittance into a treatment facility for sex addiction; and his wife, Marchesa designer Georgina Chapman, announcing that she is leaving her husband, and that her “heart breaks for all the women who have suffered tremendous pain because of these unforgivable actions.”

This is actually monumental.

However, Weinstein’s behaviour has been alluded to multiple times before, in very public forums. While some people have said they were completely unaware of his behaviour, others admitted to hearing rumours about it, including George Clooney, who told The Daily Beast, “I’ve heard rumours, and the rumours in general started back in the ’90s, and they were that certain actresses had slept with Harvey to get a role. It seemed like a way to smear the actresses and demean them by saying that they didn’t get the jobs based on their talent, so I took those rumours with a grain of salt.”

Based on the following things, this has been Hollywood’s worst-kept secret for a while.

While promoting Shakespeare in Love in November 1998—which was produced by Weinstein—Gwyneth Paltrow did an interview with David Letterman on The Late Show.

Given the timing of the interview, Letterman and Paltrow talked about Thanksgiving plans. “I would have ordinarily gone not on Thanksgiving but I’m here for you,” Paltrow told the talk show host.

“Are you here of your own free will?” Letterman joked in response. “Has someone coerced you into being here?”

“Do you count Harvey Weinstein as a coercer?” Paltrow responded, in a way that implied the two were sharing an in-joke.

She went on to say, “I do all my movies for Harvey Weinstein—that’s Miramax—and I’m lucky to do them there but he will coerce you to do a thing or two.”

On the surface, the conversation seemed like Paltrow was doing the interview for Weinstein, to promote the movie. When Letterman asked Paltrow what Weinstein did for her in return, she replied, “Nothing.”

“I’m kind of fed up with Harvey’s behaviour,” Letterman stated, which got a pretty big reaction from Paltrow.

Paltrow was one of the high-profile stars who came forward and said she was sexually harassed by the Hollywood producer. Speaking to The New York Times after their initial report went public, Paltrow said Weinstein had just hired her as the lead for Emma when she was 22, then alleged that he called her to his suite, put his hands on her, then suggested they head to the bedroom for massages.

“I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified,” she said. She told her boyfriend at the time, Brad Pitt, what had happened, and Pitt confronted Weinstein at a premiere, telling him to never touch Paltrow again.

At the time, Weinstein told Paltrow never to tell anyone about what had happened. She complied because she “thought he was going to fire me.”

Seth MacFarlane’s ‘joke’ while announcing the 2013 Oscar nominations

Seth MacFarlane and Emma Stone had the honour of announcing the nominations for the Academy Awards in 2013. The tape of Seth reading out the nominees for Supporting Actress—Sally Field, Anne Hathaway, Jacki Weaver, Helen Hunt and Amy Adams—has resurfaced because of this line: “Congratulations, you five ladies no longer have to pretend to be attracted to Harvey Weinstein.”

Cue awkward laughter in the room.

The moment plays from the 3:02 mark in this video.

Shortly after the video resurfaced, MacFarlane released a statement on Twitter about why he made that joke. “Make no mistake, this came from a place of loathing and anger,” he wrote.

This scene from a 2012 episode of '30 Rock'

Tina Fey worked in a reference to Harvey Weinstein in a 2012 episode of her award-winning show 30 Rock. In one scene, Jenna (Jane Krakowski) tells Tracy (Tracy Morgan) that she isn’t intimidated by anyone in show business: “I’m not afraid of anyone in show business. I turned down intercourse with Harvey Weinstein on no less than three occasions—out of five.”

The reports that several actors helped kill the story back in 2004

Sharon Waxman, a journalist and founder of The Wrap, wrote a piece after The Times’ article came out, which alleged that several high-profile actors, including Matt Damon and Russell Crowe, played a role in preventing her from publishing a similar exposé back in 2004.

Waxman was working for The Times back then, and was writing a story that included a deep-dive into Fabrizio Lombardo’s role at Miramax’s Italian offices. (Weinstein also co-founded Miramax, and was working there at the time.) “I had people on the record telling me Lombardo knew nothing about film, and others citing evenings he organised with Russian escorts,” Waxman wrote in her piece for The Wrap.

Instead, Lombardo’s role with Miramax was allegedly as a “procurer of women” for Weinstein. Waxman revealed the reason why her story never ran in The Times in 2004: “After intense pressure from Weinstein, which included having Matt Damon and Russell Crowe call me directly to vouch for Lombardo and unknown discussions well above my head at the Times, the story was gutted.”

Damon has since responded to the allegations that he was aware of Weinstein’s behaviour, and that he helped cover it up. (This is how several media outlets reported it.)

“My recollection was that it was about a one minute phone call. Harvey had called me and said, they’re writing a story about Fabrizio, who I knew from The Talented Mr. Ripley. He has organized our premiere in Italy and so I knew him in a professional capacity and I’d had dinner at his house,” Damon said in an interview with Deadline. “Harvey said, Sharon Waxman is writing a story about Fabrizio and it’s really negative. Can you just call and tell her what your experience with Fabrizio was. So I did, and that’s what I said to her. It didn’t even make the piece that she wrote. As I recall, her piece just said that Russell and I had called and relayed our experience with Fabrizio. That was the extent of it and so I was very surprised to see it come back. I was never conscripted to do anything. We vouch for each other, all the time, and it didn’t even make her article. Whether it didn’t jibe with her storyline… it was an incomplete rendering of someone that I was giving but I had perfectly professional experiences with Fabrizio and I didn’t mind telling her that.”

Waxman tweeted that she “endorsed” Damon’s statement.

In the interview with Deadline, Damon added, “If there was ever an event that I was at and Harvey was doing this kind of thing and I didn’t see it, then I am so deeply sorry, because I would have stopped it,” and, “For the record, I would never, ever, ever try to kill a story like that. I just wouldn’t do that. It’s not something I would do, for anybody.”

Asia Argento revealing she wrote and directed a scene in the 1999 movie 'Scarlet Diva' about her alleged assault

Asia Argento was one of the actresses who went on the record for Ronan Farrow’s piece. She alleged that she was sexually assaulted by Weinstein in 1997, when she was invited to a Miramax party in a hotel, and arrived at a hotel room to find only the film producer. In her recount of the incident, she said that Weinstein asked her to give him a massage, and then he forced her legs apart and performed oral sex on her, even though she repeatedly told him to stop.

After the article came out, Argento tweeted the link to a scene she wrote and directed from the 1999 film Scarlet Diva, which appears to be a recreation of her experience.

Argento’s boyfriend, renowned chef Anthony Bourdain, has been extremely vocal about the whole thing on his Twitter account.

Rose McGowan's damning tweets from 2016

In 2016, Rose McGowan—one of the actresses who was mentioned in The Times’ report, though she declined to comment—posted a series of tweets that alleged she had been raped by a powerful Hollywood executive.

She did not name her rapist, because according to The Times, McGowan was one of several actresses Weinstein paid out settlements to, “after an episode in a hotel room during the Sundance Film Festival.” McGowan was 23 at the time and the settlement was $100,000.

McGowan still hasn’t released a name—well, she can’t—but on the day The Times’ piece ran, she tweeted, “Anyone who does business with __ is complicit. And deep down you know you are even dirtier. Cleanse yourselves.”